The All NL Central Team, 2007

I decided to have a nice multi-post topic that I could go into a lot of detail on. What I've decided to do is create the All NL Central Team for 2007. It's perhaps the worst division in baseball, and at some positions you can see why. However, we've still got some excellent talent in our little part of the majors.

Of course, with the Central, we've got six teams to choose from, which gives for a larger talent pool to choose from than say, the AL West. So at least we have that going for us.

Now, to make this feasible, I've decided on some rules to make this a realistic team on some level. The rules are designed to keep this from being just a true all-star team that relies on veterans on huge contracts. They're designed to make it so that I HAVE to choose some players who are on either rookie contracts and are overperforming or are just generally on more frugal contracts than they'll probably receive if they keep up their current pace.

These rules include:
1) That my "team" is constrained by the average payroll of the NL Central teams. 2007 payrolls can be found here. This limits me to a somewhat frugal $74 million in payroll. This would put my team, should I spend it all, in 18th, between the Twins and A's.

2) For the outfield, any three outfielders can be selected, but one of them must be a center fielder.

3) The bullpen must contain 1 person who is actually a team's designated closer and should also contain at least 1 lefty, preferably 2.

4) Starting position players must be selected at the position they played most during the 2007 series (No putting Berkman back in the outfield, he's a first baseman now).

5) Defense and previous years DO matter, but should be secondary to the current year's offensive stats. So if I say Pujols and Fielder is a push on this year's stats, assuming I can afford Pujols' salary, he would be the one I'd choose.

6) I must fill a standard 25-man roster and every team MUST be represented.

7) Individual player salaries are per ESPN.com. Unlisted salaries will be assumed to be at $400,000, around where many rookies and minor-league deals are valued at.

Now, I'm going to post my nominees for positions in probably two posts, then over the course of the next week or two, I'll take chunks of this team per post, and tell why I chose them (with a final post summarizing the whole team).

For today's post, to finish up, I'll simply show my nominees for starting pitching.

Player - Team - Record - ERA - K's - IP - Salary - Throws
(stats are as of 8-29, BEFORE games were played)

R. Hill - Chicago - 8-7 - 3.68 - 154 - 161.1 - 400k - L
T. Lilly - Chicago - 13-7 - 3.85 - 140 - 168.1 - 6M - L
C. Zambrano - Chicago - 14-10 - 3.95 - 143 - 173.1 - 12.4M - R
A. Harang - Cincy - 13-3 - 3.68 - 166 - 181 - 4.25M - R
R. Oswalt - Houston - 13-6 - 3.33 - 130 - 178.1 - 13M - R
A. Wainwright - St. Louis - 12-9 - 3.86 - 113 - 163.1 - 410k - R
T. Gorzelanny - Pittsburgh - 14-7 - 3.58 - 114 - 173.1 - 386k - L
I. Snell - Pittsburgh - 8-10 - 3.93 - 147 - 169.2 - 408k - R
B. Sheets - Milwaukee - 10-4 - 3.39 - 90 - 119.1 - 11.1M - R

Bolded/Italicized indicates they have the highest(or in ERA, the lowest) in that stat.

These are the nominees for the starting five. They obviously have different strengths, different salaries, and different levels of accomplishment. Anyone else interested in participating in this activity either on your own blog or posting on mine, you're certainly not bound by this list. If there's a starter that I left off for some reason that you want to include, feel free. I don't imagine you'll find someone you'd rather have from the Central than these 9, but if you do, way to go.

Coming next: The nominees for each infield position (and maybe the outfield, or that might be a separate post).

Bullpen will be last, with bench players being chosen from the infielders and outfielders that did not make it.